James Cameron’s favourite movie of all time: “It’s still as magical now as it ever was”
In the realms of cinema, James Cameron stands tall at the podium as though a conductor preparing to order his orchestra into masterpiece brilliance. The blockbuster auteur has proven time and time again that he’s capable of weaving the most spell-binding narratives, whether in the action, science fiction or even romantic film genres.
From his futuristic work on Aliens and Terminator to his exploration of the deepest part of the ocean in The Abyss to crafting a new world beyond our wildest imagination in Avatar, Cameron’s technical ability marries his adeptness as a master storyteller, easily making him one of cinema’s all-time big players.
Throughout his career, Cameron has delivered so many cinema fan’s favourite movie moments, but it’s always interesting to turn the question back at the director himself. Thankfully, Cameron was once asked by none other than Aliens’ Newt actor Carrie Henn what his top choice movie was, revealing more about the filmmaker’s biography.
“My favourite film is The Wizard Of Oz,” Cameron said in a feature with Empire. “It’s been with me my whole life, from first viewing on a black-and-white TV as a kid in the early ’60s to my periodic family screenings of it to this day. It’s still as magical now as it ever was.”
The Wizard of Oz is the widely beloved classical musical fantasy movie produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and released in 1939. Based on the 1900 children’s fantasy novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum, the film version was directed by Victor Fleming, although he left the production to work on Gone with the Wind.
“That moment when Dorothy opens the door and steps out of her black-and-white world into the vivid, Technicolor land of Oz still gets me,” Cameron said of his first moments watching the film. “The genius of that, and how it must have taken the audience’s breath away in 1939.”
Starring Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr and many others, The Wizard of Oz, as Cameron attests, was famed for its use of Technicolor as well as possessing a brilliant score and a fantastic story. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards and won ‘Best Original Score’ and ‘Best Original Song’.
Cameron can’t help but watch the movie now through a director’s eyes, noting, “I think about how hot that lion suit must have been under those old arc lights and how tough actors were in those days. But it has never lost its charm or the power of its message, which is not, ‘There’s no place like home,’ but that if you respect the people you meet along your path and help them, you’ll become friends and your care for each other will get you through any adversity.”
